A warm welcome to Purley United Reformed Church. You are always welcome. Please come in. This is after all your church.

Thank you for visiting our website and we hope you find your visit helpful and informative.

Purley United Reformed Church is a congregation of the United Reformed Church located in the heart of Purley, offering a place of worship and service to the community. We aim to be an all-inclusive community where all are welcome and all are valued. Our church building is a valued centre for the community activity and we have a strong commitment to work with other churches in the area.

We aim to be a community where people can journey together and explore faith issues in an open and non-judgemental environment.

International Connections

Our Featured Post

is the united response of the Christians of Purley & Kenley Churches Together to the growing food need in our communities in Croydon. A charity has been formed to carry forward the work of the Food Hub: it is Purley & Kenley Churches Together Food Hub (Charity number 1152807).

To helppeople in crisis who are without food. They may have become unemployed, been sick or had a sudden change in their domestic circumstances. They may have had their benefits stopped and are appealing against the decision. A series of events coming together may have left them unable to buy food to meet their basic needs. We are seeking to avoid creating long-term dependencies.

The Food Hub is not a drop in. Food is given only to people who have one of the Food Hub’s food tickets. They take the ticket to the our food distribution centre in central Purley. There they are made welcome and receive a supply of food for three days. The allowance reflects the size of the family.

By donating food or money at one of our regular collections. We are also drawing up a list of contacts we can call on when increased demand has left us short of particular foods. Money donations are very welcome. Any donations are gratefully received and will contribute to this important work in the community for those who are in need of emergency need and support.

Russell was born and brought up in Putney, South West London before studying history at Edinburgh University. He trained for the ministry in Manchester and has served churches in Billericay, Essex, West Wickham and Elmers End in South London before becoming minister of Purley URC in January 2005.

Russell is married to Nicola and they have two sons, Cameron and Ross.

Born in Streatham, South London, I attended a Congregational Church, which became a URC in 1972, and I served as a Church Secretary and elder, alongside my teaching profession and being an accredited lay preacher.

I took early retirement from my post as Head, when my school in Ewell amalgamated with another local school. The next three years I trained for ordained ministry on the then Southwark Ordination Course.

I was ordained in Trinity URC/Methodist Church in Sutton, as the Associate Minister, working with the Methodist Minister, and in close contact with the local Baptists and Anglicans. During this time I became one of the Chaplains at St Raphael’s Hospice, North Cheam.

'Peace from a shoebox'

(article published in 'Reform' April 2017 issue)

How a food parcel led to the development of a global partnership between five churches

What happens when, in 1946, you send a marmalade pudding, tins of sardines and corned beef, dried egg powder and half a pound of tea in a shoebox to Germany? Twenty years later, the birth of a unique international five-way church partnership, which has developed and flourishes to this day.

That shoebox and others were sent by Shelley Road Congregational Church in Worthing to Wolfstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, leading to the creation in 1957 of the denomination's link with the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate. Back then, and throughout the 1960s, the impetus was reconciliation â€“ between West and East Germany, the UK and Germany, western Europe and eastern Europe, and the US and Europe.

As part of this partnership, Purley Congregational Church developed links with Speyer in Germany, but it also made connections with the USA. During a 1967 pulpit exchange, Purley's minister, the Revd Cyril Franks, uncovered some highly prejudiced and stereotypical views of Germans in Hartford, Connecticut. He felt attitudes would only change if people met face to face and realised how much they had in common, whatever labels they wore. The churches in Purley and Hartford then piggybacked onto contacts already made by Speyer with Dessau in East Germany and Ostrava in Czechoslovakia, creating the five-way partnership as we know it today. This rationale sustained the partnership until after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The 1992 partnership conference, with Dessau and Ostrava fully represented for the first time, was a high point, with 120 visitors from three countries and four congregations staying in Purley for two weeks.

'Peace from a shoebox'

(article published in 'Reform' April 2017 issue)

How a food parcel led to the development of a global partnership between five churches

What happens when, in 1946, you send a marmalade pudding, tins of sardines and corned beef, dried egg powder and half a pound of tea in a shoebox to Germany? Twenty years later, the birth of a unique international five-way church partnership, which has developed and flourishes to this day.

That shoebox and others were sent by Shelley Road Congregational Church in Worthing to Wolfstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, leading to the creation in 1957 of the denomination's link with the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate. Back then, and throughout the 1960s, the impetus was reconciliation â€“ between West and East Germany, the UK and Germany, western Europe and eastern Europe, and the US and Europe.

As part of this partnership, Purley Congregational Church developed links with Speyer in Germany, but it also made connections with the USA. During a 1967 pulpit exchange, Purley's minister, the Revd Cyril Franks, uncovered some highly prejudiced and stereotypical views of Germans in Hartford, Connecticut. He felt attitudes would only change if people met face to face and realised how much they had in common, whatever labels they wore. The churches in Purley and Hartford then piggybacked onto contacts already made by Speyer with Dessau in East Germany and Ostrava in Czechoslovakia, creating the five-way partnership as we know it today. This rationale sustained the partnership until after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The 1992 partnership conference, with Dessau and Ostrava fully represented for the first time, was a high point, with 120 visitors from three countries and four congregations staying in Purley for two weeks.